Acts 21

21:1-7 Providence must be acknowledged when our affairs go on well. Wherever Paul came, he inquired what disciples were there, and found them out. Foreseeing his troubles, from love to him, and concern for the church, they wrongly thought it would be most for the glory of God that he should continue at liberty; but their earnestness to dissuade him from it, renders his pious resolution the more illustrious. He has taught us by example, as well as by rule, to pray always, to pray without ceasing. Their last farewell was sweetened with prayer.

CHAPTER 21Ac 21:1-16. Sailing from Ephesus, They Land at Tyre, and Thence Sailing to Ptolemais, They Proceed by Land to Cæsarea and Jerusalem.1. we were gotten—"torn."from them—expressing the difficulty and pain of the parting.with a straight course—running before the wind, as Ac 16:11.unto Coos—Cos, an island due south from Miletus, which they would reach in about six hours, and coming close to the mainland.the day following unto Rhodes—another island, some fifty miles to the southeast, of brilliant classic memory and beauty.thence unto Patara—a town on the magnificent mainland of Lycia, almost due east from Rhodes. It was the seat of a celebrated oracle of Apollo.

"\nAnd finding a ship sailing over unto Phoenicia,.... For it seems that the ship they went aboard at Assos, Ac 20:13 went no further, at least in the way the apostle was going, than Patara; but lighting on another ship, which was bound for Phoenicia, for the city of Tyre, which bordered on the land of Israel, and indeed originally belonged to Canaan; see Ac 11:19.\n\nwe went aboard; the said ship:\n\nand set forth; on the voyage.\n\n\n "

"\nNow when we had discovered Cyprus,.... An island, as the Syriac version here calls it, which lay between Syria and Cilicia;\n[See comments on Ac 4:36]; and was, according to R. Benjamin {l}, four days sail from Rhodes, before mentioned:\n\nwe left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria; that part of it called Phoenicia:\n\nand landed at Tyre; the chief city of Phoenicia, famous for navigation and commerce: it stood about four furlongs distant from the shore, and was joined to the continent by Alexander the great {m}. The account Jerom {n} gives of it is this,\n\n"Tyre, the metropolis of Phoenicia, in the tribe of Nephthalim, is near twenty miles from Caesarea Philippi; this was formerly an island, but made continent land by Alexander:--its chief excellency lies in shell fish and purple.''\n\nIt was a very ancient city, though it seems not so ancient as Sidon, from whence it was distant about two hundred furlongs. Herodotus {o} says, that in his time it had been inhabited two thousand three hundred years; Hiram was king of it in Solomon's time; yea, mention is made of it in Joshua's time, if the text in Jos 19:29 is rightly translated: some say it was built seventy six years before the destruction of Troy. It is to be distinguished into old Tyre, which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the island of Tyre, which was conquered by Alexander, and new Tyre annexed, by him to the continent. In the Hebrew language it is called \u05e6\u05d5\u05e8, "Tzur", or "Tzor", which signifies a "rock", being built on one; though some think it has its name from \u05e6\u05d4\u05d5\u05e8, "Tzehor", which signifies "brightness"; it is now called Sur or Suri, and is quite desolate, being only a receptacle of thieves and robbers: though R. Benjamin says, in his time, new Tyre was a very good city, and had a port within it, into which ships go between two towers; and that there were in it four hundred Jews, and some of them skilful in the Talmud; --who further observes, that if anyone ascended the walls of new Tyre, he might see Tyre the crowning city, Isa 23:8 which was a stone's cast from the new; but if a man would go in a boat on the sea, he might see towers, streets, and palaces in the bottom {p}:\n\nfor there the ship was to unlade her burden; which she had taken in, in the ports where she had been, but where is not certain; for that she had been at Ephesus, and took in her lading there, as Grotius thinks, does not appear; since this was not the ship the apostle and his company sailed in from Miletus, but which they went aboard at Patara, Ac 21:1.\n\n{l} Itinerar. p. 30. {m} Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 19. Mela, l. 1. c. 12. {n} De locis Hebraicis, fol. 96. K. {o} Euterpe, l. 2. c. 44. {p} ltinerar. p. 35, 36.\n\n\n "

"\nAnd finding disciples,.... At Tyre, for the Gospel had been preached in Phoenicia by the ministers of the word, who were scattered by the persecution raised at the death of Stephen; and here were brethren, such as had believed in Christ, embraced and professed his Gospel, and were baptized in his name; see\nAc 11:19 and who also had extraordinary gifts, as appears by what follows; and there was no doubt a Gospel church founded in this place, though who presided over it in the first century, we have no account; in the "second" century there was a church here, and Cassius was bishop of it {q}; in the "third" century there were some martyrs in this place, who suffered under Dioclesian, and bore innumerable stripes with great courage and constancy, and after that fought with beasts, as bears, leopards, boars, and bulls, and at the same time Tyrannio, bishop of this church, also suffered martyrdom {r}; in the "fourth" century there was a synod at Tyre under Constantine, to which he wrote a letter {s}. There was a bishop of this church present at the council of Nice, in the times of the said emperor; in this age Paulinus and Dorotheus were bishops of Tyre; in the "fifth" century Irenaeus was bishop of Tyre, and then it was the metropolitan of Phoenicia; and in the "sixth" century, there was a bishop of the same church present at the fifth council of Rome and Constantinople {t}.